Chapter 4: Training and battling
As Mark and Charmander, along with Eevee in its pokéball, went out of Cleanwater city to the Lake of Purity, Mark saw a lot of tourists. He knew people came from all over the world to see how clean the water was, but he never thought there were so many. When he got to the lake itself, he looked at the water and saw why: the water was very deep, and very large, but the bottom could as easily be seen as the grass on the bank. And as the water was so pure, many pokémon prefered drinking that water, he remembered having read somewhere.
Mark saw a sign, mainly for telling tourists the depth and size of the lake, but also had the legend about the Gyarados and the Suicune written on it. It said:
Once, not so long time ago, a Gyarados lived in the Lake of Purity. It had evolved from a Magikarp said to be actually powerful. It evolved after beating a trainer that came to the lake with his weakest pokémon to battle some Magikarps. In those times, the water was icky. The Gyarados caught fish and could easily hide. No one could get rid of it and soon all the fish was hiding and didn’t dare to move when the people of the city were fishing. This made people hungry and in the end, everyone was making their own mixtures to kill the Gyarados and get the fish back. They poured them into the lake and even though each mixture was only supposed to kill the Gyarados, it made the whole lake poisonous. All the fish was dying, and people who drank the water were dying, even after cleaning it as well as they could. The Gyarados, however, was not harmed at all. Then a woman prayed for help, and a Suicune rushed to the lake, dipped one paw into it and it was perfectly clear. Then it ran away again.
The next day, the Suicune came again to clean the water, and then it visited the woman’s house, told her it would come every day thereafter to clean the lake, and that she should not worry about the Gyarados.
The next day, everyone saw how the purity of the lake annoyed the Gyarados. All the fish saw it from the other end of the lake, and it couldn’t hide anywhere. And the day after that, it was nowhere to be found. As no rivers run in or out of the lake, it is still a mystery what became of the Gyarados. Who knows, maybe it can fly, after all Gyarados is a Water/Flying type pokémon.
“That’s interesting,” Mark said. “Perhaps I will find it. Well, let’s start training.”
Just at that moment, he heard someone say: “A pokémon trainer? What about a battle?” He turned around and saw it was a blue-haired girl about his age. She had a pokéball in her hand and she was throwing it up and down. He could also see that in the belt around her waist, she had one more pokémon.
“Okay! Let’s begin!”
“Go, Butterfree!”
“Go, Charmander!”
“Butterfree, String shot!”
Butterfree shot threads from its mouth that covered Charmander.
“Charmander, Ember!”
Charmander burned the thread and managed to set Butterfree’s wings on fire.
“Butterfree, Confusion!” the girl shouted at the Butterfree. The butterfly pokémon glowed purple, and so did Charmander. It went dizzy and then just simply fainted.
“Oh, no! Charmander, come back! Go, Eevee!”
Butterfree was fluttering around, trying to put out the fire on its wings.
“Eevee, Tackle!” Mark shouted. Eevee shot at Butterfree and tackled it down, causing it to faint.
“Come back, Butterfree! Go, Skarmory!”
“Eevee, crouch to the ground, and Skarmory can’t hurt you!”
“You think so!” said the girl. “Skarmory, Swift!” Skarmory fired a barrage of metallic feathers down at Eevee. The feathers were sharp and Eevee remained all cut.
“Eevee, don’t give up! Jump on Skarmory and drag it to the ground!”
“Skarmory, fly higher!” Even though Skarmory flew up as fast as it could, Eevee was quicker and caught hold of Skarmory’s tailfeathers. They crashed. Both of them seemed to have fainted, when...
“Eeeveee!”
“I won! I won!” Mark was delighted. “Eevee, come back!” He recalled Eevee.
“Skarmory, return,” the girl said, rather disappointed. “You’re a pretty good trainer. What is your name?”
“I’m Mark,” Mark said.
“My name’s May. Are we friends, then?”
“Friends!” They shook hands.
“Anyway, I need to go. I have to train a lot.” May hurried off.
Then, Mark took out his pokédex and pointed it at Eevee.
“Eevee, evolution pokémon. It has many possible ways to evolve, as its genetic code is very unstable. At level 9, Eevee should know Tackle, Tail whip, and Sand-attack,” said the pokédex voice.
“Level nine? I need to train Charmander as soon as I’ve healed it!”
Then he went to the Cleanwater pokémon center.
After Mark healed Eevee and Charmander, they went back to the lake to train.
“Charmander charmander charmander?” Charmander asked.
“Oh, that’s a good idea. Eevee, come out for a minute.” Mark let Eevee out of its pokéball.
“I asked Charmander, so it is just fair that I ask you too. Do you want to evolve?”
“Vee?”
“Yes, you can. Didn’t you know?”
“Eevee.” It shook its head.
“Well, you can easily evolve into Vaporeon, Jolteon, or Flareon. Vaporeon is a water pokémon that can turn itself into water and then back to its normal form. Jolteon is an electric pokémon covered with spikes that it can shoot at the enemy. Flareon is a fire pokémon that can blow fire over 5,000 degrees. And then, you can evolve into Espeon or Umbreon, but that is much more difficult. Espeon is a psychic pokémon that has a glowing crystal on its forehead. Umbreon is a dark pokémon that can hardly be seen in the dark. Well, do you want to evolve, or do you not?”
“Eevee vee.”
“Want to? Well, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Espeon or Umbreon?”
“Eevee.”
“Don’t mind? Well, I wouldn’t want to make you an Espeon or Umbreon, that would take ages, and I already have a fire pokémon – that means either Vaporeon or Jolteon. We’ll see. Well, Charmander, you’d better be trained too. Two levels needed to tie with Eevee.” And Mark recalled Eevee into its pokéball, and soon they were back at the lake.
“Well, the question is: Where are the pokémon?” Just as Mark said that, a wild Sandshrew came.
“Charmander, go!”
Sandshrew scratched Charmander as soon as it came out of its pokéball.
“Charmander, Ember!”
Charmander shot flames at the Sandshrew. It didn’t seem to be damaged much, but Mark decided to try to catch it anyway.
“Pokéball, go!” The ball wobbled once, it wobbled twice, and...
“Shreew!” an angry Sandshrew popped out and kicked sand at Charmander.
“Oh, no! Charmander, use Ember and try to hit if you can!”
Charmander shot flames at the Sandshrew, but due to the sand in Charmander’s eyes, it missed. Sandshrew curled up in a ball.
“Charmander, Ember!”
“CHAAR!” A really angry Charmander used Ember on Sandshrew.
“Pokéball, go!” Mark shouted and threw the ball. It wobbled once, it woobled twice, it wobbled three times, it wobbled for the fourth time, and...
“YES! YES! I caught a Sandshrew!” Mark picked up the pokéball and pointed the pokédex at it.
“Sandshrew, mouse pokémon. This pokémon can dig very fast and it can also curl up in a ball so that almost no attack can hurt it. At level 13, Sandshrew should know Scratch, Defense curl, Poison sting and Sand-attack.”
“Level thirteen! No wonder it popped out of the ball! Charmander, we need to find another pokémon.”
After a long search, they found a Pidgeotto resting in a tree. It didn’t like being disturbed like that and shot down to attack.
“Charmander, go! Ember!”
Charmander shot flames at the bird pokémon, which took the damage and looked angry. It flapped its wings rapidly, using Gust. Charmander managed to withstand the powerful wind and retailated with an Ember. Pidgeotto did a Quick attack on Charmander and chirped “Pidgeoooooott!”
“Charmander, one more Ember, and you’ll win this!”
Charmander blew more fire at the Pidgeotto, causing it to faint.
“Good, Charmander! You really did great!” Mark pointed the pokédex at Charmander.
“At level 10, Charmander should know Scratch, Growl and Ember.”
“Level ten? Then it’s time to train Eevee!”
And so he kept training.